Staying ahead of a superstorm with open-data visualizations

Hurricane Sandy, widely dubbed ‘Frankenstorm’ by the media, caused devastation and death across the US east coast last week, but the latest satellite and government data were used by infomediaries – individuals or groups that create value out of information – to turn a voluminous amount of data into useful, life-saving, and, some-might-say, beautiful mashup of text, graphics, video, and animations.

Hurricane Sandy, widely dubbed ‘Frankenstorm’ by the media, caused devastation and death across the US east coast last week, but the latest satellite and government data were used by infomediaries – individuals or groups that create value out of information – to turn a voluminous amount of data into useful, life-saving, and, some-might-say, beautiful mashup of text, graphics, video, and animations.

On the website ‘Strata: making data work’ – created by Tim O’Reilly, founder of O’Reilly media and a prominent advocate of the open-source movement – a number of examples are given of open government data feeds used as sources for critical infrastructure during one the largest storms to ever hit the US.

Beautiful, deadly, and helpful

A wind map visualization shows live wind currents across the North American continent, which are reminiscent of psychedelic art in motion. The surface wind forecast data comes from the National Digital Forecast Database, which is revised every hour. Top wind speeds are located over lakes or offshore according to the website.

On Tuesday 30 October the strongest winds above 30 miles per hour were, unsurprisingly, concentrated in the New York area. But, the website does have a caveat that its data shouldn’t be used to fly a plane, sail a boat, or fight wildfires, and that traditional maps of temperature and wind may be more useful about weather details.

Snapshot of North American wind map visualization on 30 October 2012. Hovering your mouse over the map tells you the wind speed of a particular region. Image courtesy wind map.

Government representatives have noticed open data’s impact during the crisis. Matt Lira, the director of digital for the majority leader in the US House of Representatives says: “This dynamic wind map is an example of how open government data can be utilized in effective & creative ways,” on his Twitter page.

It does, however, have a disclaimer: users have to agree to not sue Civiguard or its partners based on the information it provides.

Snapshot of Civiguard map showing evacuation centers and zones on 30 October 2012. There doesn't appear to be a legend, but it seems fairly obvious you really don't want to be in the red zones. Image courtesy Civiguard.

This rapid consolidation of open data, technology, government, commercial companies, and savvy individuals provided critical emergency and morale-boosting services, showing how open government data in the right context adds essential value to the public and, from what we can see, without risking individual privacy.

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About the author:

Adrian Giordani has a Masters in Science Communication from Imperial College London, where he was also the Editor-in-Chief of I, Science magazine. He was a science journalist and Interim Editor-in-Chief at the publication, International Science Grid This Week, in CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. He writes about health, big data, software, supercomputing, and all forms of large-scale computing. You can follow him on Twitter (@Speakster).